Static Site Generators in Production

Docusaurus

Docusaurus is the most established React-based documentation framework, with versioning, a large plugin ecosystem and a mature set of defaults. Its trade-offs show up at scale: every page is bundled and hydrated as part of a React application, builds on large or heavily versioned sites take minutes and gigabytes of memory, and the JavaScript per page is several times that of static-first frameworks.

The guides below cover getting the most out of it — versioning strategy and the faster Rspack-based build — and, for teams whose priorities have shifted, a measured comparison with Starlight and a complete migration.

Docusaurus cold build time with webpack and with the faster Rspack option Paired bars from the docs framework benchmark on a 2,000-page corpus. The cold build took 166 seconds with webpack and 81 seconds with the Rspack-based faster option. The warm build took 139 seconds with webpack and 58 seconds with Rspack. Docusaurus build time, default and Rspack webpack faster (Rspack) Cold build 166 s 81 s Warm build 139 s 58 s
From the docs framework build-time comparison below; same corpus and runner for both.

Choosing the Right Static Site Generator for Production

Number of Docusaurus guides of each kind Vertical bars: How-tos 4, Fixes 1, Comparisons 2 and Concepts 0. Docusaurus guides by kind 4 How-tos 1 Fixes 2 Comparisons 0 Concepts
7 guides use Docusaurus in depth; each is listed below under the section it belongs to.
Topics with the most Docusaurus guides Horizontal bars, largest first: Docs Frameworks: Docusaurus, Starlight and VitePress 6 and Migrating Between Static Site Generators 1. Where Docusaurus comes up Docs Frameworks: Docusaurus, Starlight… 6 Migrating Between Static Site Generators 1
Topic pages give the wider context for each group; the numbers count only guides that use this tool in depth.

Often used with Docusaurus

  • Starlight4 shared guidesAstro-based docs: overrides, translation and migration in.
  • Astro2 shared guidesIslands, content collections, astro:assets and deployment.
  • VitePress1 shared guidesVue-based docs, compared on build time and page weight.